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It should be obvious to all that raising the minimum wage to $100 a hour would simply result of countless small and medium-sized businesses closing their doors, and would add 90% of those currently working to the unemployment rolls.
The current level of income of most small and medium businesses is not enough to cover a $100 minimum wage (and the Big Businesses that CAN afford it would simply shut down operations in those areas subject to the high minimum wage--like they do ANYTIME a certain activity is not ridiculously profitable). A restaurant, or clothing store cannot just raise prices as much as they want--customers just stop going there. Even with modern "necessities" like electricity are limited in how much their providers can charge: if my propane heat bill suddenly went up by a factor of ten, I would drop the thermostat to just above freezing, close off parts of the house, and use wood heat.
But if we ever got back to a fair economy where workers had as much bargaining power as corporate CEOs, wages WOULD increase and the need for welfare would drop off drastically. Too bad not a single force is working in that direction.
I usually assume people who jump to the notion that why not make minimum wage $100/hr is usually incapable of having a serious conversation about this topic.
It's a shame that that it is ridiculously expensive to hire a worker (thanks to government taxes), but the worker actually GETS very little of the money he costs his employer (after taxes and benefits).
We could help the unemployment problem by exempting individuals who want to hire help from the endless tax and bureaucratic requirements Washington has imposed. Especially considering that our upper class (who could AFFORD to pay their help well) are 100% complicit in ignoring the burdens they impose on everyone who doesn't have their endless unearned income.
"This is the question the right has to answer. Do you want smaller government with less handouts, or do you want a low minimum wage? Because you cannot have both. If Colonel Sanders isn't going to pay the lady behind the counter enough to live on, then Uncle Sam has to, and I for one am getting a little tired of helping highly profitable companies pay their workers.: ~ Bill Maher
It's a shame that that it is ridiculously expensive to hire a worker (thanks to government taxes), but the worker actually GETS very little of the money he costs his employer (after taxes and benefits).
We could help the unemployment problem by exempting individuals who want to hire help from the endless tax and bureaucratic requirements Washington has imposed. Especially considering that our upper class (who could AFFORD to pay their help well) are 100% complicit in ignoring the burdens they impose on everyone who doesn't have their endless unearned income.
Many of those who complain about the conditions also cheer the destruction of jobs that are not Wal-Mart jobs. Just look to the thread on the ban on light bulbs.
GE got the government to pass a ban on certain bulbs, then they closed the plants here making those bulbs and moved production overseas.
Either employers can pay a wage that one is able to live on or that person will require government assistance. Pretty much a straight line there.
The wealthy and the corporate elites, in my view, would like nothing more than to turn back the clock to 1870 and erase the struggles and reforms of the 20th Century. They yearn to resurrect a new "Gilded Age" when a few hundred privileged families live in astonishing splendor and majesty. To do this, labor unions, minimum wage, unemployment compensation, paid vacation time, child labor laws, employee safety laws, environmental protection regulations, etc. must be abolished. The "middle class" will diminish and a new low paid working class majority will emerge.
When that happens, the "1%" will live in their grandiose opulent 100 room palaces with servants by the score. The rest of us will live in trailer parks, tenements, or tiny row-houses.
Assume that prices don't rise and that $450 billion is subtracted from total corporate profits. Think past today and tell what the implications are next year.
Either employers can pay a wage that one is able to live on or that person will require government assistance. Pretty much a straight line there.
straight line? What does that even mean? Are you referring to a linear equation, or what?
There are many more options than the two you present. When in college I worked a low wage job as a hotel desk clerk at night, and went to school during the day. I rented a sleeping room and lived there until I was finally able to get a better job. I never needed nor accepted any government assistance. When in high school I had a part time job working for a janitorial service.
The guy who had started it was a guy who had no marketable skill, but decided to start his own business, gradually building it, working 70 hour weeks in the early days to make it work. When I met him he had been at it for a while. He owned his home, and drove a Cadillac. I doubt that he had ever needed or accepted gov't assistance.
Maybe ole Bill should hire some of those on minimum wage and "share" some of HIS millions!
Didn't Bill famously donate $1 million to Obama 2012? Bill would rather put his cash towards that then towards actually helping the poor. Then Obama can send his IRS goons out to flyover country to extract the money from flyover wallets.
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